How Weld County law enforcement and canines have adapted to the era of legal marijuana

Although future drug-sniffing dogs that work for the Weld County Sheriff’s office will not be trained to alert deputies to the presence of marijuana, the office will continue to keep one dog trained to sniff for the drug. That dog, Roman, works in the Weld County Jail, and marijuana is still illegal there. At their request, Roman also conducts sniffs for drugs in Weld County’s schools, where it is also illegal to possess marijuana.

When Greeley police dog Rocko turned his head to the left and snapped his jaws as he stood outside the car about 12:45 Saturday morning, officer Kevin Clarey knew there were drugs inside.

Rocko is trained to react that way if he smells illegal narcotics, such as methamphetamine or heroin. Rocko's reaction led officers to search the car and then the driver, who they'd found slumped over the steering wheel asleep not long before.

Although Rocko can tell officers if he smells drugs, he can't tell them what kind of drugs he smells, nor can he say how much. That limitation was the subject of a July 14 Colorado Court of Appeals ruling on a 2015 case from Moffat County. In that case, a dog alerted officers to the presence of drugs, prompting them to search a truck they'd stopped. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled because the dog couldn't tell the officers whether he smelled marijuana or other, illegal drugs, the search was invalid. If, for example, police searched the car and found only a legal amount of marijuana, they would have violated the owner's expectation of privacy. The three-judge panel ruled, in the days of recreational marijuana, officers need to base a search on more than a dog's reaction.

While this might sound like a thorny legal issue, in Weld County, it's not, really. Neither Rocko nor the Greeley Police Department's other dog, Cairo, has been trained to alert officers to the smell of marijuana. That means if the dogs tell officers they're smelling drugs, an illegal substance is involved.

That's by design. Sgt. Craig Bollig said the unit's previous supervisor anticipated a ruling such as the one the court of appeals handed down and made sure neither dog was trained to alert officers to the smell of marijuana.

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"We could see that decision coming for a long time," said Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner. "It won't impact us at all."

Of the Weld County Sheriff's office's five drug-sniffing patrol dogs, three are still trained to alert officers to the presence of marijuana. The decision to search a car or make an arrest never hinges solely on a dog's reaction though, said Capt. Roger Ainsworth, who leads the office's K9 team. Deputies must have other reasons to believe a person is in possession of, or high on, drugs. They might, for example, see pipes or other drug paraphernalia in the car, or they might notice a driver is acting impaired.

Plus, Ainsworth said, the office is working to adapt to the era of recreational marijuana.

"For the past three or four years, we haven't even trained with marijuana with our dogs," Ainsworth said.

While a dog's brain can't be wiped completely clean, deputies can stop rewarding them for reacting to the smell of marijuana in training. This makes them less likely to do so on the street.

One of the Greeley Police Department's original dogs, Darwin, who retired in June, was trained to alert officers to the smell of marijuana. Bollig said he remembers a handful of cases in which defendants claimed their arrests were invalid because a police dog smelled legal marijuana and prompted a search in which police found other, incriminating things. "I'm fairly certain that issue was brought up in court here as well," he said. "I'm sure there's still some open cases."

Those are rare cases though, Bollig said, and there shouldn't be any more of them, since neither Rocko nor Cairo were trained to sniff for marijuana.

Ainsworth said Weld deputies saw the trend coming too. For that reason, none of the office's new patrol dogs will be trained to alert officers to the presence of marijuana.

He said the fact some departments haven't anticipated this problem with legal marijuana is surprising.

"That tells me people haven't been planning for the inevitable," he said.

The exception

Although future drug-sniffing dogs that work for the Weld County Sheriff’s office will not be trained to alert deputies to the presence of marijuana, the office will continue to keep one dog trained to sniff for the drug. That dog, Roman, works in the Weld County Jail, and marijuana is still illegal there. At their request, Roman also conducts sniffs for drugs in Weld County’s schools, where it is also illegal to possess marijuana.